Kirsten's research explores the shape and governance of international organisations and international community, focussing on the United Nations. She is especially interested in exploring international organisations beyond their commonly assumed epiphenomenal status in IR, and taking their continued existence as part of a global political structure seriously. 

Kirsten is interested in the role of people in global governance, such as the UN Secretary-General and women executive heads, and questions of leadership, recruitment and representation. Her work contributes to the IR gender literature as well as the organisational study of the UN.

Current research focuses on the material and visual cultures of international community as embodied by the UN, both historically and in the context of hegemonial decline and organisational change.

Kirsten Haack is Associate Professor in International Politics. She is a researcher of international organisations with a focus on the United Nations, specialising in the study of people/individuals in international relations, specifically leadership in international organisations by the UN Secretary-General, women executive heads and women diplomats, and questions of representation at the UN. She is further interested in international law as practice, specifically relating to the use of force. Kirsten is currently co-leading the international WiLiGG (Women in Leadership in Global Governance) network and engaged in three projects: a history of gender equality at the UN; conceptualising women's leadership in international organisations; and visual IR, art/artefacts and representations of IR, statehood and political practice.